User reviews

Seeing Kinnaman among the cast was enough to make the decision to watch this movie. He did not disappoint, brought his A game, as usual, and did a more than decent job with the character and script he was given.

All in all this was not the movie of the century, as a matter of fact it would be hard to call it even the movie of the year. But quite honestly, looking at the poster and reading the film's summary, I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting here, and the movie delivered exactly that. It was a story built on a well known, well used and overused formula, with a little twist (the good guys having hearing issues), and that's about it. I did not expect it to be incredibly original, and it wasn't. I expected it to have a few memorable moments, and it did have a few (the protagonist "acquiring" his hearing problem for one). I expected to see a few tired cliches, and they sure were right were you'd think they'd be. And in general, I expected to be entertained for a bit, and I was. The story had a good pace, the runtime was filled with actual action, not pointless fillers. No forced romantic plot lines/sex scenes, no overlong buildup of the starting situation, no monologues and cheesy emotions etc. Just a coherent story that held my interest and kept me engaged.

I wouldn't think that I would feel like re watching it anytime soon, or put it on my all-time-favourites list, but it filled an evening just fine. And with today's abundance of absolutely awful movies, that was just enough.

I barely recognized Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman. He has a very distinctive voice and that's how I knew I saw him before. That was in the excellent series The Killing (2011), a show you definitely need to watch if you like the mystery/crime genre. That said he did a good job playing the detective who's losing his hearing little by little. The story has a good suspense level but it is a bit predictable. Nonetheless once you're into the story you'll never get bored as there's plenty of suspenseful action scenes. The entire cast was good with their performances. The Silent Hour won't win Oscars but it's certainly worth watching.

Set in Boston, 11 months after suffering massive head trauma in the line of duty, Homicide Detective Frank Shaw (Joel Kinnaman) is struggling to adapt to his life with reduced hearing necessitating the usage of hearing aids and the prospect that within a year's time or less he may lose his hearing completely. An off duty Shaw is approached by his former partner Detective Doug Slater (Mark Strong) who is investigating the murder of two drug pushers and with the Department's interpreter unavailable, Slater enlists Shaw's help in interviewing deaf witness Ava Fremont (Sandra Mae Frank) as Shaw has been taking American Sign Language classes at the behest of his daughter Sam (Katrina Lupi). Shaw reluctantly accompanies Slater to a dilapidated apartment complex with only a few stray tenants as the owner is in the process of evicting the former tenants in favor of condos where the two confirm she has a video of the murder and take her official statement. As Shaw makes his way home, he realizes he left his phone at Ava's apartment prompting him to return where he finds Ava under attack by a team of corrupt cops who intend to stage her as an overdose and Shaw manages to save Ava briefly lose the cops. Without a gun or a phone, Shaw and Ava play a dangerous game of cat and mouse navigating the dilapidated apartment complex in search of either escape or help.

The Silent Hour is the latest from genre director Brad Anderson and is being released on VOD via Paramount's Republic Pictures label. Written by first time credited writer Dan Hall, the AGC Studios produced thriller on paper seems like the kind of film you often associate with VOD releases, modestly budgeted genre pieces that in this theatrical climate are considered "too small" for theaters and more often than not feature lower tier actors like Mel Gibson or Aaron Eckhart. I'm pleased to say that The Silent Hour is actually quite an entertaining experience, even if I attribute that more to the direction and acting than the script itself.

At its core, The Silent Hour is a mash-up of Die Hard by way of 16 Blocks with the added gimmick of hearing impairment of our two leads. While the genre side of things covers standard "protecting a witness" territory from the likes of Clint Eastwood's The Gauntlet or the minor 50s film-noir classic The Narrow Margin, it helps that Brad Anderson is in the director's chair because if you look at his filmography he excels in confined character based thrillers (Transiberian, The Machinist, Session 9, etc.) and not only brings out the best in good material, but can even make more middling material engaging like 2019's Fractured. The Silent Hour's script really doesn't do anything wrong but it's very much a standard genre template and while the gimmick of deafness is there it's not used as memorably as something like Mike Flanagan's Hush or The Quiet Place films used it and when it's used it's usually more for dramatic moments between our leads Joel Kinnaman and Sandra Mae Frank (who is deaf in real life) who are really good in the movie and have some good insights on people who were born deaf versus those who became deaf where Frank signs the line "a single missing piece doesn't make you less whole". The rest of the cast do well playing their roles such as Mekhi Phifer and Mark Strong, even if the familiar script doesn't leave them a lot of standout moments but they're servicable for what's required of them.

The Silent Hour is the definition of "solid rental" as it has an intriguing high concept while not quite having that extra layer of polish to the script that would demand it be shown theatrically. Thanks to a strong pair of leads in Kinnaman and Frank and the tight reliable direction of Brad Anderson, the Silent Hour makes for a quick, effective, and mostly entertaining 90 minutes.

Director Brad Anderson delivers a film that is more entertaining than you might think. It won't revolutionize anything, but it has a lot more content than you might think, which makes for a pleasant time.

Starring Joel Kinnaman and Sandra Mae Frank, the film follows a Boston detective who loses his hearing after an accident on duty. With his new role as a sign language interpreter for the department, Frank now has the mission of protecting Ava, a deaf woman who witnessed a double murder. The use of sign language is the key to the film's captivating nature, allowing for an impeccable connection between the main characters who, through their lack of hearing, make this suspense thriller have some really well-achieved moments and tension that is well managed by its director.

The good use of sound, with which the film gets an additional plus, makes the simple story take an interesting turn, without being extraordinary or novel, but for what the film proposes it is quite efficient, more so if we add the good work of its director who knows how to place the camera at the moment of exploiting the tension. Then we find the typical argumentative clichés of a script that plays it safe and without major daring, few deaths and little intelligence among the villains stand out, but the game you enter achieves its goal of fair, average and partial entertainment for a film that does not pretend to revolutionize everything, but rather to fulfill its original idea.

A cast that includes supporting actors such as Mark Strong, Mekhi Phifer and Michael Eklund help the film to have the level of commitment it deserves so that you, as a viewer, become hooked on the whole story that is being told to us.

A better bet than you might think, it won't be one of those that will make it into the top of the year, but it does have its charm that makes it more enjoyable than you might think or be carried away by the critics. It has its moments, it has a couple with chemistry and it has just the right level of tension that makes it totally enjoyable to watch, without discounting the message it seeks to convey, which is really the great power that the film has.

Yes, okay, you aren't getting anything original, but The Silent Hour is a well made, taut, action Thriller and thoroughly engaged me from start to finish. Good performances from the cast, especially the two leads.

Yes, okay, you aren't getting anything original, but The Silent Hour is a well made, taut, action Thriller and thoroughly engaged me from start to finish. Good performances from the cast, especially the two leads.

Yes, okay, you aren't getting anything original, but The Silent Hour is a well made, taut, action Thriller and thoroughly engaged me from start to finish. Good performances from the cast, especially the two leads.

In Boston, homicide detective Frank Shaw (Joel Kinnaman) is chasing a criminal when he is hit by a car. He has a sensible hearing loss and eleven months later, his doctor tells him that he will become deaf in a few months. While the devastated Frank is drinking in a bar, his former partner and now narcotics detective Doug Slater (Mark Strong) asks Frank to help him in an investigation. He needs to interview Ava Fremont (Sandra Mae Frank), a deaf witness to the murder of a drug dealer, but the ASL translator is on vacation and not available for one month. Frank goes with Doug to Ava's apartment in an almost empty residence building and they learn that the residents have been evicted since the owner wants to renovate the building to rent the apartments for a higher class. Frank learns that Ava is a former drug addicted and finds Narcan in her bathroom cabinet. Ava delivers her cellphone to Doug with the footage of the murder, and they leave her place. While driving back home, Frank notes that he has forgotten his cellphone at Ava's apartment. He returns to her home and finds that a group of men led by the black Lynch (Mekhi Phifer) is hunting her down. Soon he learns that Lynch and the other men are corrupt cops that want to simulate an overdose in Ava to kill her. Further, Ava is not drug addicted and used drugs only when her grandmother died, and she was depressed. Now their only hope is to find a telephone and contact Doug Slater to save them.

"The Silent Hour" (2024) is an engaging and claustrophobic thriller with a cat and mouse game story. Joel Kinnaman performs the role of an honest police detective that is involved in the attempt to murder a witness by dirty cops. Sandra Mae Frank is deaf in real life and is comfortable in the role of the smart deaf witness that is saved by Frank Shaw. The plot is predictable and flaws when Ava discharges the pistol retrieved by Frank on the window, leaving them without a weapon again. Despite the flaws, this film is highly entertaining. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Not Available"

An entertaining thriller just do just that -- entertain. It should not present a paradox to the viewer, or do anything which makes it harder for the viewer to identify with the main character. Yet this film actually goes out of its way to do just that. On paper, all the boxes are checked. Brad Anderson is both prolific and successful at his craft. Kinnaman is one of those actors who is easy to relate to, and never gives a bad performance or disapponts. The story is obviously a riff on the Die Hard formula, and pretty hard to mess up as long as you remember to "set up" the action scenes in advance. Even with the checked boxes, the result is a letdown. Giving Kinnaman's character a literal handicap -- even to the point of having him repeatedly fiddle with his hearing aid -- makes it harder to relate to the main character. The Die Hard arc is not well developed, and the action scenes do not deliver on the "killbox" promise that the audience expects. Instead of leaving feeling entertained, one leaves with the feeling that this could have been better done. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

The Silent Hour starts with an intriguing premise, but quickly falls into the trap of predictability. While the performances are decent, the plot unravels in a way that's easy to foresee, with little to no surprises. The suspense, which is crucial for a thriller of this nature, feels underwhelming as the story progresses. Every twist can be spotted from a mile away, making the film less engaging than it could have been. It's not a bad watch if you're in the mood for something light and don't mind knowing exactly where the story is headed. Sadly, it just doesn't offer enough in terms of originality or tension to stand out.

This is a simple movie that doesn't claim to be particularly profound, yet it features some great moments. I found myself sympathizing with the main character, and his suffering resonated with me in certain scenes. It's not a film that you watch and forget as soon as you turn off the TV.

While some scenes can be repetitive and certain actions may not make sense, the movie doesn't pretend to be sophisticated. It highlights how dangerous the life of a police officer can be and illustrates how quickly things can turn from perfect to miserable in an instant, all in the name of doing the job and keeping the community safe.

Overall, it is definitely worth watching, especially when compared to the mediocre films that are often released nowadays.

I had to put on fast forward to finish it, unfortunately. It is too predictable and the wait is not worth it at all.

You have to get me right, I love Joel since 'The Killing', but there is simply not much to judge about this particular movie. I guess the overall idea is fine, the acting was okay. And that's it.

The whole movie basically takes place in a few rooms. There is no character development, the whole backstory for the characters is fed to us in couple of dialogue lines. Introduction feels abrupt. Decorations are sterile. There are some actions scenes, but half of them are cartoonishly silly. And I could bear with it all easily if only the plot was good...

But the plot is the worst part. Movie is totally ruined by it, the predictability and the giant holes it has. It is just the most basic screenplay that could exist. And the way some of the issues are explained is ridiculous. Maybe it's just me, I did really see too many movies in my life, so I knew where this one is going instantly and there was no effort made to throw the viewer off the only predictable path or to cover it and add at least some degree of mystery.

Its really sad, I was hoping for it to be a good movie. At best it could serve as a background while you're falling asleep. Any valuable substance here is missing.

That 139 mins went quickly. Fantastic suspense movie.

Enjoy this as pure entertainment and forget and remember it's just a movie and you'll enjoy it.

A police officer that is going deaf quickly as a result of a work accident must defend a deaf lady as the bad guys take them hostage in an empty building. Time is ticking and who does one trust? With no hearing the two must communicate with their other senses and outwit the intruders.

The main actress who is deaf in real life is brilliant and I'm looking forward in seeing her past movies and following her future. The whole acting/ behind the scenes team build a great thriller filled with suspense and drama.

One of the baddies ( you have to wonder ) how he got that far as a criminal.

A couple of minor plot holes, predictable in parts however does what a thriller movie should do and that's to enjoy.

Just to add the sound team did amazing job with sound dropping where it should and shouldn't and echoing for the deaf characters.

Well done.

If there was not the deaf - half deaf actually - cop in this action thriller, I would have already forgotten it. This movie is a routine time waster, which bored me a bit from time to time in the first part, but less in the second. Slightly above average action thriller among hundreds - if not thousands - of others. I repeat, you have an unusual deaf cop character, I mean a cop with the greatest difficulties to hear and who's in charge to protect a young totally deaf mute woman against a bunch of villains, who are cops !! And I like those villains; one of them desperately needs money for his daughter suffering from an illness...Very interesting.... Yes, the second part is ten times better, more gritty and tense than the first one. I thought a bit about Walter Hill's TRESSPASS on the scheme and overall atmosphere.

The Silent Hour is a standard police thriller. A witness to a murder is in danger as to whom the murderes are. The twist is she's deaf. And this is a perfect opportunity for the newly hearing impaired officer to ease back into service. (Also the second film for Joel Kinneman playing a hearing impaired person.)

The procedural is standard with nothing new on display. This film does it well within the budget it has, and all actors are up for the challenges of the production. What makes this more than just a standard genre effort is Joel Kinneman and his character's adjustment to being hearing impaired. He and Sandra Mae Frank have good chemistry as protector and protected, but also the reversal of her mentor as a deaf person to his newly lost hearing.

Nothing new as a police thriller, but the inclusion of a newly HIP officer allows for decent character development.

I enjoyed watching The Silent Hour, directed by Brad Anderson, is a crime thriller that offers solid performances and a tense atmosphere. Joel Kinnaman stands out with a strong portrayal of his character, bringing depth and authenticity to his role. Sandra Mae Frank also delivers a compelling performance, and the chemistry between the two leads enhances the film's emotional impact.

The movie is well-paced, with a steady sense of tension that keeps you engaged throughout. While it doesn't break new ground in the genre, it's a watchable and enjoyable experience with moments of genuine suspense.

Joel Kinnaman has already had enough films to his name as an actor, one a bit better than the other, but in general neat films come out. Last year Kinnaman starred in Silent Night, although that film was not too much of a great. Next to Kinnaman we see Mark Strong. This British actor really has a lot of good movies on his way. So the combination should be able to produce a nice movie, but at first glance the trailer is not really convincing. These kinds of cat-and-mouse games movies have been made a lot in the past of course, then it also becomes difficult to get original. It doesn't really get original anywhere, but the film certainly has its moments and manages to get exciting here and there, although that needs to be nuanced. Because the tension is often turned upside down by predictability and that is deadly in films like this.

Frank Shaw is a cop and of course a very good one, with every imaginable cliché you can think of. For example, someone pulls a weapon, Shaw knows how to immediately mention the model of the weapon and how many bullets are in it. If the criminal flees, Shaw also counts how many times the criminal shoots, so he knows when the weapon is empty. These are really one of those moments when you start rolling your eyes, because you really can't get away with this in 2024. Shaw then runs hard into a car and with a big wound on his forehead, the blood also flows from his ears and that's it. A brief look at the hearing damage and the effects it has on Shaw and his career. When his former partner Doug Slater asks him for help with a deaf witness named Ava, Shaw agrees. It's a bit strange that in such an important case an agent is set up who is not yet really proficient in sign language and of course it doesn't click between Ava and Shaw, at least it's just as difficult to do, but a minute later she's completely over. She has incriminating witness material on a phone of a double murder and then a group of men enter the building to clear Ava out of the way.

The group of men turn out to be corrupt police officers, something Shaw very quickly finds out through the working method. It results in scenes in which Shaw and Ava have to flee from apartment to apartment through the windows of the building. They are one of those escape attempts where the enemy just looks away to see if everything is going well and they are not seen, to the point of irritating. Still, with all these criticisms, the film is somewhat entertaining. There are plenty of similar films to mention that may be better, but as a light snack, The Silent Hour is fine to stay. Fortunately, there is enough pace in the film, nothing is really stretched or dramatized, which sometimes happens with these kinds of films. The film lasts under the other half hour minus the credits and that's a long time for a film like this.

The Silent Hour is a light snack on a boring day. The film is full of clichés and is also extremely predictable. Even the big twist they want to give, you as a viewer already know how to guess after a few minutes in the film. It is a typical cat-and-mouse game where the tension can be built up based on the sound, by the viewer so you hear what Shaw himself hears. This is perhaps the most original thing about the film, but no masterpiece of the film was expected in advance anyway, so actually the film went in line with expectations. For the rest, the film runs smoothly and does not last too long. Because the pace is at a great level, the film looks nice and away, but to be honest, a trip to the cinema is definitely not worth it. Maybe if the movie ends up on a streaming service, this is still a watching tip on a boring afternoon when you have nothing else to watch or do.

A movie about survival with unqiue circumstances. Fighting off bad guys while facing unfavorable circumstances can intensify any storyline. And lately there hasn't been many handicapped cop drama so this stands out. Writers attempt at making sense of evey element is remarkable. A good story paired with a realistic performance is what makes this movie noteworthy. Action sequences have interesting twists that's supported with great visuals. Over ninety percent of the movie is hide and seek so the hunting party is indeed patient and the watch party requires even more of that sweet patience to enjoy this story.

Acting 4/10 Story 3/10 Directing 2.5/10 Cinematography 3.5/10 Special Effects 2.5/10 Pacing 3/10 Enjoyment 2/10 Characters 3/10 Music Score 3.5/10 Technical Aspects 3.5/10 Artistic Merit 2/10

I can't seem to figure out whether or not the "good" guys or the "bad" guys or more inept in this film. Both sides had several chances to end this stalemate of running down corridors and stepping through windows. The feel-good aspect of the movie was completely drowned out by the sub standard awkwardness of nearly every scene.

Kinnaman did a good job with what he had to work with. Unfortunately there's only so much one actor can do.

An enjoyable thriller from last year starring Joel Kinnaman. Kinnaman is a gung-ho detective who during the film's opening salvo while chasing a suspect undergoes a life altering accident leaving his hearing affected. We flash forward more than a year later, Kinnaman now wears a hearing aid & is working slowly towards learning sign language when his former partner, Mark Strong, requests they visit a hearing-impaired witness to a murder at a now shuttering housing complex (which is in the throes of gentrification). Meeting the woman, Sandra Mae Frank, she provides video footage of the crime which has a clear vantage of the assailants, so the cops decide to confiscate the phone & bring her in for a more detailed interview at a later date. Kinnaman & Strong leave but Kinnaman forgets his phone & when he returns to the apartment for it he runs smack into an attempt on Frank's life which he thwarts. What gives? What's going on? Kinnaman & Frank soon hightail it to safety but are trapped inside the building, since it's being guarded inside & out, which for the brief runtime works wonders amping up the thrills by journeyman director Brad Anderson (Next Stop, Wonderland/The Machinist) who other than some lapses in judgment on who the big bad is, still works a bunch. Also starring Mekhi Phifer as the head thug barking orders at his underlings.

So, is this supposed to have been a movie about some kind of a superhero with his hearing being a kind of a superpower? The he loses it by getting banged on the head, but instead of retiring for being severely handicapped, he continues to work as a homicide detective, no less. Yeah, right. Why does anyone think that the public would believe this premise? Shuts down your involvement in the movie right away. It actually makes fun of people with hearing aids, makes them out as pathetic and incapable of anything other than walking around doing nothing except running away from noises like some kind of an animal. Disgusting. When they introduced the deaf junkie girl with her moaning they lost me completely, so I had to turn it off.

"The Silent Hour" is a thrilling auditory adventure that plunges us into a world of silence and suspense. Joel Kinnaman's portrayal of a deaf detective, forced to rely on his instincts and a deaf witness, is a masterclass in understated intensity. The film's sound design is a character in itself, creating a palpable sense of isolation and tension. While the plot may be predictable at times, the film's unique premise and strong performances elevate it above the ordinary. "The Silent Hour" is a must-watch for fans of suspenseful thrillers and a testament to the power of storytelling without words.

Is it strange to anyone else that Joel Kinnaman has played characters who have accidents that cause them to lose their hearing ability in back-to-back action films? I wonder if there is any obvious explanation for this.

Could have used a little more character development all around, but, for me, it was a solid action-thriller where the characters acted intelligently. There were setups and payoffs, realistic usage of guns, and genuinely tense moments.

The plot was standard, but fine. It could have been more original, I suppose, but the corrupt cops vs witness storyline was handled pretty well even if the writing didn't really flesh it out.

The characters' lack of hearing ability also played into the cat-and-mouse games in interesting ways that were both positive and negative. It's a small thing, but I appreciated that the writers actually incorporated this throughout and didn't let everything devolve into generic shootouts that could be in any film. The sound design could have done more with this, but they clearly did try to include moments where the audience experienced what the characters with limited hearing were experiencing.

Sandra Mae Frank created a natural and believable dynamic with Kinnaman, and there was just enough chemistry between them for me to genuinely root for their all-too-predictable survival. The ending kind of ripped off the ending of Beyond Silence/La famille Bélier/Coda, but to somewhat lesser effect.

In case you wondered what Joel Kinnaman was doing since the excellent SUICIDE SQUAD, here he is headlining a typical cop thriller which turns into a mini version of RAID (albeit with much less action and more focus on a macabre hide and seek game) in the second half. The story involves Kinnaman's cop suffering from hearing loss before meeting a witness to an execution who he then has to protect from gangsters. Much of the story is set in a dreary tower block, and adequate use is made of the location, although there are some contrived scenes of our protagonists escaping just in the nick of time. Mark Strong has one of the most cliched roles imaginable, and THE MACHINIST remains Brad Anderson's strongest work as director.